Pen Hadow’s Arctic Mission – To Sail to the North Pole

Arctic explorer Pen Hadow trekked, and swam, from Ward Hunt Island to the North Pole in 2003. Solo and unsupported. He plans to return to the North Pole this summer, but on this occasion he’ll be sailing with a few companions. According to yesterday’s Sunday Times:

Pen Hadow launches bittersweet mission to sail to North Pole

For his new record attempt, Hadow and his nine-strong team will take two yachts on a 3,500-mile round trip from Nome in Alaska to the pole, using satellites to find a route through the ice and avoid getting stuck. He will fly to Alaska to join his team members on Saturday.

If all goes to plan, he will arrive at the pole between August 15 and early September, about 510 miles further north than anyone has sailed before.

Arctic Mission sets off from Nome in Alaska (USA) in the first week of August. The expedition team will not see land again for six weeks. We will cover about 3,500 miles by the time they return to harbour at Nome in mid-September.

Our two 50 foot yachts, Bagheera and Snow Dragon II, are specially built to sail in waters with sea ice, and the four skippers, two on each boat, are exceptionally experienced in polar seas, and with navigation and safety procedures in sea ice.

The Arctic Mission team intend to do lots of science during their attempt to reach the Pole:

Our expedition is going to explore, discover and share the stories of the spectacular marine wildlife – plants, animals and even bacteria – that lives around the North Pole. Be prepared to be surprised!

We’ll also be doing essential scientific studies and sharing this information, so that our international policy-makers can decide how best to #protect90North.

The more we explore this unexplored ocean, the better we will understand how it works, which means we can make the best decisions to protect it for the benefit of everyone for ever.

We’ve met the two yachts in question before. In 2015 Bagheera and Snow Dragon II both successfully negotiated the Northwest Passage. However this voyage will be far more difficult. During their attempt to sail to the North Pole in the summer of 2013 Sébastian Roubinet and Vincent Berthet had to be rescued by the Russian icebreaker Admiral Makarov when the Central Arctic refreeze set in earlier than originally anticipated. Unlike the ice skating catamaran Babouchka, Bagheera and Snow Dragon II both have engines which will certainly help avoiding a similar fate. In addition perhaps the sea ice in the Arctic is less of an obstacle than it was in 2013? In an interview with the BBC World Service on Sunday Pen pointed out that:

Now 40% of the international waters around the North Pole, what we call the Central Arctic Ocean, are open water in the summer time.

When asked:

Do you think you’ll actually achieve this goal then?

Pen replied:

I think it’s quite possible, with the assistance of a US agency that have satellites that are going to be helping us each day pick the best route through these ever narrowing cracks, and it’s quite possible that we’ll reach the North Geographic Pole.

I also trust that the Arctic Mission team will be keeping a close eye on the Arctic weather forecast over the next month or so. Last August the crew of the yacht Northabout feared for their lives when caught in an Arctic cyclone in a sheltered anchorage on the Northern Sea Route. There is no such safe haven anywhere near the North Pole.

Pen concluded his BBC interview as follows:

If we can produce a visual image of a sail boat at 90 degrees north I think that could become an iconic image of the challenge that the twenty-first century faces. Are we serious about running this planet, which is actually what we need to start doing, and it’s biophysical resources on a sustainable basis, or are we just here for a laugh?

We wish him and the Arctic Mission team well. Watch this space for further updates, and possibly that iconic visual image! Meanwhile here’s a picture of Bagheera in the Northwest Passage in 2015:

plus an image from the Sentinel 1B satellite of the current state of the Arctic sea ice on the direct route from Nome to the North Pole:

[This] brings us to the summer of 2016, and an idea I was mulling over. A rather Big Idea. Had the deterioration of the Arctic sea ice got to a point where switching from Spring-time sledge-hauling to Summer-time sailing was appropriate? In my solo journey from northern Canada to the North Geographic Pole in 2003, I had spent over 30 hours swimming open water stretches, out of the total 850 hours spent hauling my sledge while walking on skis across the sea ice. It had dawned on me then that global warming was the likely cause of so much open water. Since then, it has become highly unlikely that the ski route from northern Russia to the Pole will be done again, due to the absence of sea ice for most of the year off the Severnaya Zemlya island group. And the other classic route from northern Canada no longer has an aircraft operation to provide the necessary support for sea ice expeditions, due to the worsening quality of the sea ice. Both routes have now been lost to the Arctic Ocean’s fast-changing environment. And with this change, the Arctic Ocean with its hitherto frozen summer surface is now rapidly becoming open-access to surface vessels for the first time in human history.

Would it be possible to sail a small yacht to the Pole? Could that create a useful platform to share the unfolding situation with a global audience? Might this be the best way I could focus world attention on the merit of creating a new marine reserve in the international waters surrounding the North Pole?

It looks like we’re just about to find out the answer to those questions. The team have also announced another livestream from Nome, Alaska. This one is scheduled for 8 PM BST tomorrow, Thursday August 10th. They say:

Ahead of our Friday departure (weather permitting – there’s a nasty storm brewing over the Bering Strait that may prove problematic) we’d love to introduce you to the Arctic Mission team.

This is probably what they are referring to:

A bumpy ride for Pen Hadow et al. is in store on Saturday, and some big waves for Utqiaġvik (Barrow as was) as well.

[Edit – August 13th]

An overly brief and (hence?) rather misleading article in the Sunday Times today. According to Jonathan Leake:

Sailing to North Pole will have to wait

Pen Hadow, the British explorer, is today due to start a sailing expedition across the Arctic Ocean to highlight the effects of climate change, including an attempt to reach the North Pole.

Scientists warned, though, that despite the rapid melting of the ice there was unlikely to be access to the North Pole via open water for some years.

Professor Mark Serreze, director of America’s National Snow and Ice Data Centre, said the North Pole was still surrounded by nearly 800 miles of solid pack ice as of last week.

Jonathan appears not to have a particularly good grasp of sea ice (thermo)dynamics during the latter stages of the summer melting season!

Arctic Mission moored its yachts to an ice floe on 29 August to conduct one of its 24-hour marine science surveys, while drifting with the sea ice. The strategy for any future northward progress had been to monitor the sea surface currents, sea ice, and weather conditions (both observed from the yachts and through satellites imagery downloaded onto our computers), and decide how to proceed as we approached the end of the 24-hour survey.

A meeting of the four skippers was held led by Erik de Jong, with Pen Hadow present, and it was agreed further northward progress would increase considerably the risks to the expedition, with very limited scientific reward. The decision to head south, back to an area of less concentrated sea ice in the vicinity of 79 degrees 30 minutes North, was made at 18.30 (Alaskan time).

Here’s the live tracking map from 06:00 UTC this morning:

A prudent and not unexpected decision. Cue the cackling from all the usual suspects?

54 thoughts on “Pen Hadow’s Arctic Mission – To Sail to the North Pole”

“The first storm of the summer appears on it’s way. August 3rd/4th. This pic is for Aug 4th. It looks like a low with a center of around 975mb.”
ASIB comment.
So storms on 4/8, 11/8 and 18/8.
First sounds a doozy. Will they be underway by then?

That one was forecast to be sub 970 hPa four days in advance, but ended up bottoming out at a “mere” 980 hPa. Here’s the current ECMWF forecast for August 4th:

I’ll believe it when I see it! As for Pen’s Arctic Mission, their departure date seems to be a bit vague. “In the first week of August” suggests they might be underway by the 4th, but they’ll still be an awful long way from the North Pole.

7/18/12 lowest thickness in satellite era compared to 7/18/17 new lowest thickness… In just 5 years we have virtually lost all the 3,4 and 5 meter ice folks and next month so goes the 2 meter ice… Get ready for the Clathrate Gun folks…
>>
This is a comment by 12Patrick from the 2017 melting season thread from Nevens forum.

Even though a lot of the thicker ice has been lost in the last few years doesn’t this mission still count as extremely dangerous?

I agree about danger. I hope he has made a large deposit somewhere to cover their costs of rescue. I’m not sure how effective the satellite help will be in the kinds of storms that can/have happened on that route.

It seems a tracking map will shortly become available on the Arctic Mission web site.

Pen also seems to be backing off a bit from the “North Pole” mission. His exact words were:

Although the obvious goal, if you will, is to reach the North Pole. Whether we do or not is absolutely not the key, highest priority of the project. Just for your information, the highest priority that runs through everything that we do is to be safe as crew and looking after the vessels. We need to come back. So it is not a do or die, let’s repeat, not a do or die mission to reach the North Pole!

I think it would have been smarter to say: We’re going to sail North as far as we can. If you then reach 86N, or even 87N, that would probably be furthest anyone has sailed without an icebreaker. That would already be pretty cool.

But now it’ll be: Didn’t make it to the North Pole. Things probably aren’t that bad yet.

They have slowed way down, right about where MASIE (Aug 21 data) shows the start of sea ice. 830 NM remain to the pole which at 2 knots is 17 days, one way ETA North Pole Sept 7th. Then they would need to get back. In the last 10 NM the speed has dropped to 0.1 knots, the last heading was southwest (away from the pole). Lowest recorded trip temperatures (- 3 C) to date.

If they are serious about getting as far north as possible they probably need to head east towards the burgeoning “Beaufort Bite”. However there does seem to be a < 6/10 concentration path north opening up nearer to their current course:

At the moment they seem to be concentrating on what they describe as the “main purpose of Arctic Mission“. In this case doing some science in the marginal ice zone.

Hanging their microphones off the paddle board, they record the sounds of the Central Arctic Ocean. Their particular interest is in understanding how melting ice affects background noise levels and whale song transmission. Playing a range of precisely calibrated artificial and natural sounds out of an underwater speaker, Tim and Heather use several different underwater microphones to understand how both pressure waves and particle movements associated with sound are impacted by ice melt.

” Pen Hadow launches bittersweet mission to sail to North Pole
For his new record attempt, Hadow and his nine-strong team will take two yachts on a 3,500-mile round trip from Nome in Alaska to the pole, using satellites to find a route through the ice and avoid getting stuck. He will fly to Alaska to join his team members on Saturday.
If all goes to plan, he will arrive at the pole between August 15 and early September, about 510 miles further north than anyone has sailed before.”
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“main purpose of Arctic Mission“. In this case doing some science in the marginal ice zone.
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Agree with Neven.

How about quoting me at length quoting the Arctic Mission web site instead?

I agreed with Neven too. Pen rather overstated his case in the initial BBC interview with his “quite possible” remark. “Not quite impossible” would have been more accurate.

That said all the usual suspects in the denialosphere are spinning the story for all they’re worth whilst conveniently ignoring what the expedition’s own web site says. You can’t believe everything you read in the newspapers you know. Especially the Mail and the Times!

Arctic mission blog post Aug 24 “First sighting: polar bears” did show mother polar bear with two cubs comfortably resting on extensive sea ice. None of the bears looked emaciated or stressed; bemused perhaps.
Attached video was able to frame a project sponsor in bold font in foreground with napping bears in the background. This is known in the business as a “promised deliverable”. Still Hadow does have considerable expenses to cover and if he wishes his summer vacation to be comped, who can blame him for his artful photo framing.

A meeting of the four skippers was held led by Erik de Jong, with Pen Hadow present, and it was agreed further northward progress would increase considerably the risks to the expedition, with very limited scientific reward. The decision to head south, back to an area of less concentrated sea ice in the vicinity of 79 degrees 30 minutes North, was made at 18.30 (Alaskan time).

Can we please put to rest that this is a scientific mission? Quoting from the Arctic Mission’s own Aug 28 blog post:
“A modified spinnaker pole serves as a trawling crane, a dinghy paddle lashed through the shrouds is an axle for spooling line; working on an ocean-going yacht demands creativity beyond the requirements of most other field sites. Knots tied through 5 pairs of gloves won’t win any prizes for style, but it’s functionality that counts here.”
I understand that science sometimes requires improvisation, but descriptions like this lend support that the Arctic Mission is poorly equipped and amateurism exemplified.
Marginal science indeed.

Would they have done better last year?
Very brave to go in those conditions and obviously committed to their ideals.
Publicity underwhelming.
Still hoping for an early freeze, not against them but to show everyone needs to put more work into the concepts we are arguing about.
No predictions, they always go the wrong way and hoping has not worked in the past

Besides don’t they already have buoys for important science research. They must be as quiet as a re-purposed paddle board. If it is such a big deal, why aren’t these acoustic instruments attached to existing buoys.

Besides besides if it was so important (scientifically) why wouldn’t real scientists have collected the data before hand. And assuming the data they collect is so important, explain the significance of 2 or 3 data points collected in August 2017 compared to….compared to what?

Post to your blog in 2018/19 the scientific results of that the Polar Mission promises to publish in peer reviewed scientific journals and make the case then that these are necessary scientific contributions. Until then they are reliving “The Riddle of the Sands” on their summer holidays in the Arctic.

I also suggest you read the rest of this website carefully. You might then learn what the diminishing number of buoys in the Arctic are capable of and how long it often takes for Arctic research to be published in peer reviewed scientific journals.

Jim – The Arctic Mission itself said: “Scientific findings will be released following comprehensive data analysis and formal publication in peer-reviewed journals in 2018/19.”

With all of their experience in Arctic research they express more confidence of their publication schedule in top-flight journals than you do. Certainly they were able to squeezer their trip sponsors into the publicity limelight, so give them a little credit.

Hadow is claiming reaching 80 N is significant, but as you point out we don’t know if this is a first. We do know that were he to make the claim that his expedition sailed closest to the North Pole than any other expedition then that would be false. Mountaineers do distinguish the route taken to climb a peak, so perhaps sailing to the North Pole from one side or the other is as significant as say climbing a mountain. For Hadow to tie up to an ice flow for a day or two then beat a hasty retreat while claiming this proves the Arctic is open for commercial development is as relevant as Messner climbing Everest and worrying about someone opening a hotel at the summit.

Didn’t you mean to say that Hadow makes the case that he sailed beyond the 200 mile limit territorial limit of any of the Arctic nations for two days before being forced to leave due to natural inclement conditions?
If he can continue to pay the rental fees for his chartered sailboats and wants to question extra-territorial development, he should continue sailing south to the Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands where China has built one of their artificial islands way, way beyond their 200 mile territorial limit. Now that would be a real media stunt.